Is a dual core much better than a celeron M410 with Vista basic?

[dog1998]

I see that many of the low end laptops the major retailers are selling
have the least powerful dual core (T2060?) or the celeron m410, along
with Vista basic. Does it make any real difference now for someone
who is not a gamer and just likes to keep IE open with another program
and also an IM program? If not, is it likely to make much of a
difference 2 or 3 years from now, with new softwware?
Thanks.

 

[paulmd]

I see that many of the low end laptops the major retailers are selling
have the least powerful dual core (T2060?) or the celeron m410, along
with Vista basic. Does it make any real difference now for someone
who is not a gamer and just likes to keep IE open with another program
and also an IM program? If not, is it likely to make much of a
difference 2 or 3 years from now, with new softwware?
Thanks.

If THAT'S all you're doing, you could be perfectly happy with a
Pentium 2 with 256mb RAM, running win2k. Adding Vista to the mix of
course makes the system requirements higher....

(As long as the other program isn't Photoshop, or similar resource
hog).

To answer the other part of the question. Yes, we all expect more
programs in the future to take advantage of the dual and quad core
processors.

 

[kony]

I see that many of the low end laptops the major retailers are selling
have the least powerful dual core (T2060?) or the celeron m410, along
with Vista basic. Does it make any real difference now for someone
who is not a gamer and just likes to keep IE open with another program
and also an IM program? If not, is it likely to make much of a
difference 2 or 3 years from now, with new softwware?
Thanks.

Don't buy a laptop for what you "Might" (Or might not) be
doing 3 years from now. It won't make a real difference.
Spend the money first on an adequate amount of memory (say
at least 1GB, maybe even more presuming the laptop has
Vista), a 7K2 RPM hard drive, and really if you can get what
you want with WinXP on it, that's like an instant upgrade
instead of Vista.

 

[Paul]

I see that many of the low end laptops the major retailers are selling
have the least powerful dual core (T2060?) or the celeron m410, along
with Vista basic. Does it make any real difference now for someone
who is not a gamer and just likes to keep IE open with another program
and also an IM program? If not, is it likely to make much of a
difference 2 or 3 years from now, with new softwware?
Thanks.

There are twelve laptops on Newegg listed as having the T2060. Some
of the laptops are advertised as coming with WinXP on them. Presumably,
if you were to buy a product straight from the manufacturer, maybe
they will reluctantly offer WinXP as a built time option.

You should read this "letter to the editor" concerning Vista.

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=39106

The cost of your purchase will rise substantially, if you
have to add more RAM to the computer to make Vista work better.
The laptop may have two SODIMM slots. These will be filled with
2x512MB from the factory. To upgrade, means removing them, and
buying some other RAM to put in its place. Options would be 2x1GB
and 2x2GB (about $570).

If you use WinXP instead, then you can live quite comfortably
with the provided 2x512MB of memory. It is Vista that makes
or breaks the deal, whether the laptop comes with a Celeron
or T2060.

In the reviews on Newegg, one person notes a battery life of
2 hours with the T2060. If battery life is a concern, you should
read more product reviews on Newegg, to see what you are getting
yourself into.

HTH,
Paul